Behind a Closing (2016)

Behind a Closing (2016)

Behind a Closing is a Master’s thesis project in development at the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program that explores themes of trauma and abuse by abstractly portraying the mind of a victim. We do this by utilizing the concept of gaslighting in which a tormenter will make the victim doubt their own memory, senses, and even their grasp of reality. The way that works in our game is that we, the developer, are gaslighting you, the player, by manipulating the environment around you while thematically playing on strong emotional pulls like negative reinforcement and guilt to create a relationship of dependence. Our goal is to make you meditate on a reality of our society that too often never sees the light of day due to those same emotional manipulations.

My Role on the Project:

My role on the team is a Producer and Scrum Master. I am in charge of all documentation and communication of deadlines. I design well-organized weekly sprints with precisely defined objectives to ensure expectations are met. I specifically use Google Spreadsheets to document Art Assets and Trello for Programming Assets needed as those were the preferences for my artists and engineers respectively. I keep in contact with my entire team through Facebook Messenger for quick, easy communication while using Slack for more specific documentation for everyone to read. I also designed a Survey for playtesters to take so that our team can have data on potential directions we should take with the game based on user feedback.